UMass Football News--March 18th, 2020

Josh Walfish has a post on how the cancellation of Spring football will impact the UMass program. Josh says Minutemen A.D. Ryan Bamford hinted at changes to UMass' offense and defensive schemes.

IMHO, one change in 2020 could be a shift to a four-three defense. UMass recruited six defensive linemen.

Viczaril Alobwade 6-5 230
Josh Atwood 6-2 350
Aaron Beckwith 6-4 270
Taishan Holmes 6-3 335 JUCO
Hugo Klages 6-3 235
Sammy Solomon 6-3 300

That's more defense line talent than UMass has seen in maybe, ever. In addition, UMass will have sophomores Billy Wooden, Johnathon Weir, Wilson Frederic and Cletus Mathurin all who played a lot in 2019.

Except for Alobwade, who is, I think somewhat of a project, the rest of the DL's will not redshirt unless injured. At this time, UMass seems to have more bodies and talent at DL than linebacker.

The Minutemen did recruit four linebackers:

Gerrell Johnson 6-3 200
Abdul Kone 6-3 200
Nahji Logan 6-3 215
Miles Turner 6-3 215

Again, this is a lot more talent than we've seen over the last three recruiting classes. All Four are three-star recruits. These four could be core of a bright future. It'll be interested to see the linebacker two-deep by the end of the year.

Still, I would want Beckwith and Solomon on the field. I'd play  Solomon and Beckwith at DE and Holmes and Atwood at DT. Klages would be my rush package.

Tomorrow, I'll speculate on changes to the UMass offense.

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